fiction

Hair

I love the texture of your hair and I wanted to tell you about it in far too many words than either you or I are comfortable with.

Book review: Fiction / A tapestry of traditions, joy, and growth

Beyond the celebration of Eid, this book also explores themes of love, loss, and the grief of spending a special occasion without a loved one.

Tangerines and marmalades

I stared at the row of pre-peeled and packaged tangerines sealed tightly under plastic wrap.

FICTION / The heart remains a stone that does not skip through water

You tell me stories of the sea—of its waves, of how it speaks to you in a language only you can understand—whenever you write back to me.

12A

Rank badges, small bags, books, diaries, notebooks, files… That’s when it caught Razeen’s eye: a weathered, dusty old envelope bearing a faint, unrecognisable logo.

Fiction / Accursed

This is an excerpt from Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay's short story "Abhishapta", translated by Dipty Rahman

Bulb of a Wonton Shop

It is enough— Enough to be here, Beneath the bulb of a wonton shop.

Out of Body

I know of my feeble frame of its graying at the edges.

Migratory Animals

migratory animal Are you looking for a home?

June 5, 2024
June 5, 2024

Second person narratives: A universe unexplored

You cannot reach the expansive world of literature quick enough

June 1, 2024
June 1, 2024

After the rain

While leaving the institute, a nurse gave me a packet of cigarettes as a token of friendship

May 30, 2024
May 30, 2024

House of Cards

Welcome, weary traveler! To my humble abode. Come, come. I'll show you

May 30, 2024
May 30, 2024

A Dead River is All I Want

You know those instances when we start off in the wide, turbulent currents of a river making its way downstream?

May 30, 2024
May 30, 2024

In the absence of a light source

Grief is a lonely river, like a fisherman's song with an empty net

May 29, 2024
May 29, 2024

Unseen chains of consequences

When a few boys arrive at the couple’s flat to seek out their college-going daughter, Rekha, the parents are thrown into a whirlwind of adventure.

May 18, 2024
May 18, 2024

Hair cream

The mosque committee was quite displeased with Rashed, their young muezzin.

May 9, 2024
May 9, 2024

A perfect cup of literary ‘saa’

Priyanka Taslim greets me with a gentle smile as we meet over Zoom. She is eloquent and our conversation flows organically, akin to an adda over a cup of saa (cha).

April 28, 2024
April 28, 2024

Insomnia

You are wide awake again

April 27, 2024
April 27, 2024

The man who dug his own grave

Everyone gathered around the east end of the Shashipur to watch Sharafat Miah dig his own grave. The local kids lurked around Sharafat’s old hut, keeping a watch on the progress of the grave until their mothers came to pick them up after Maghrib.